6 In 2010, Frito-Lay introduced a new plant-based chip bag that would be 100% biodegradable. Despite it being a highly researched and laudable move, the environment-friendly bag led to a sharp decline in their sales. This was because the new bag was extremely loud to open, sometimes even going up to 95 decibels.   

As part of their green initiative, Frito-Lay introduced a new plant-based chip bag in 2010 for their SunChips brand. After four years of extensive research, the company had finally come up with a chip bag that was 100% biodegradable. This bag would replace their original plastic chip bag that was a major cause of environmental concern. However, this otherwise laudable move came with a huge side-effect. 

It turned out that the bags were very noisy while being opened, sometimes even as loud as 95 decibels. Customers even created a Facebook page titled “SORRY BUT I CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER THIS SUN CHIPS BAG” to poke fun at this unfortunate marketing fail.

This resulted in fewer people buying the chips, and Frito-Lay witnessed a huge drop in their sales. As a result, the company was forced to withdraw their new chip bag and return to the original plastic ones. (1, 2)

7 After World War I, German Army officials sent Adolf Hitler to spy on and investigate a far-right political party called the “German Workers’ Party.” However, Hitler was soon drawn in by its policies and rose through the ranks to become its leader. In 1933, this party came into power as the NSDAP or Nazi Party.  

In 1919, a locksmith named Anton Drexler founded a right-wing party called the German Workers’ Party that held strong ideas of populism and racism. As the party became more popular in the country, its extreme beliefs drew the attention and concern of the government. German Army officials then decided to investigate the party and sent Adolf Hitler to spy on them.

At the time, Hitler was an active member of the army and worked for the Weimar Republic in a political role. But once he joined the German Workers’ Party, he was quickly seduced by its radical beliefs.

By the 1920s, the party had renamed itself the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) and made Hitler its leader. Under Hitler’s leadership, the NSDAP, or the Nazi Party, began to take its final form. Eventually, in 1933, the party came into power in Germany, marking the early days of World War II. (1, 2)

8 In 1887, Britain passed a law that made it mandatory for all manufacturers to add “Made in (country)” labels to their products. This law was passed to discourage German manufacturers from selling counterfeited forms of British goods. However, it just led to an increase in German-made products because they were seen as more reliable and cheap. 

After the Industrial Revolution had taken the whole of Europe by storm, Britain began to witness a rather controversial occurrence. It turned out that countries like Germany were producing counterfeited forms of British goods and selling them to British citizens, often at lower prices.

This bothered the British government so much that they decided to pass a law in 1887 that required all products to carry “Made in (country)” labels. 

This law was expected to create a better market for domestic-made goods and deter people from buying German goods. However, it had the opposite effect. The German goods were manufactured so well that people often preferred those to British-made products.

Eventually, the label “Made in Germany” became an identifier for high-quality goods. Even today, more than a century later, German-made products are thought to be of better quality than those made elsewhere. (1, 2)

9 The restaurant chain A&W launched a “third-pounder burger” to rival McDonald’s quarter-pounder burger. They sold the new burger at the same price, but it backfired because the majority of their customers thought that they were getting less meat.  

In the 1980s, the restaurant chain A&W decided to launch a new third-pounder burger that would rival McDonald’s quarter-pounder. A&W even came up with a “Third is the Word” ad campaign that promoted their new burger, offered at the same price as the quarter-pounder.

They expected this to become an instant hit since they were offering more meat in their burgers at the same price. However, this ad campaign failed to have its intended effect. 

Eventually, A&W hired a market researcher to find out why their new burger had failed. It then turned out that their customers were just bad at simple math. Most of them thought that they were paying more to get less meat in the third-pounder since the number three is smaller than the number four.

Finally, rather than have their staff explain fractions to their patrons, A&W decided to simply scrap the new burger. (1, 2)

10 In 1968, North Korea decided to release some propaganda photographs of sailors captured from the USS Pueblo. However, this plan failed because the captured sailors had been sticking their middle fingers out to protest their treatment. The North Koreans had photographed the prisoners for months without knowing what the gesture actually meant. 

The USS Pueblo was a spy ship launched during World War II to keep an eye on the Axis powers. In 1968, North Korea captured the ships and its crew, claiming that it had illegally entered its territory.

The captured sailors were then regularly beaten despite North Korea’s claims that they were being treated well. The North Koreans then decided to shoot some propaganda photographs of the sailors to prove their claims. 

Luckily, this plan did not work out because the sailors had decided to discreetly stick out their middle fingers as a sign of protest. When asked what the gesture meant, the soldiers claimed that the gesture was a “Hawaiian sign of good luck.”

Months later, the sailors were released when the US and North Korea came to an agreement. However, North Korea chose to keep the USS Pueblo and today, it is used to proliferate anti-US sentiments among their citizens. (1, 2)